Tory donor criticised over tax status

Lord Laidlaw, the Tory multimillionaire donor who remains a tax exile, has today been "named and shamed" over his tax affairs by an anti-sleaze watchdog.

The attack by Lord Stevenson, chair of the House of Lords appointments commission, comes as new correspondence was released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

The commission has today issued a critical report naming Lord Laidlaw for failing to comply with an undertaking given to them in 2004.

This latest information has angered Lord Stevenson, who has written a tough letter to Lord Laidlaw condemning him for not informing them that he would remain a tax exile despite giving them an undertaking to the contrary.

Lord Stevenson writes: "You gave a commitment at our meeting of April 22004 not just to become a tax resident in the UK but to become tax resident from April 6 2004, and, indeed, informed us that you had already consulted with your tax advisers on this position.

"You further told me and my colleagues that you were going to your advisers straight after our meeting to arrange this ...

"At no stage did you contact us thereafter; the obvious time to do so, if you could not honour your commitment to become tax resident immediately, would have been between the 2 and 6 April after you visited your advisers.

"And if at any point subsequently, you came to the conclusion that you could not do this, one would assume that you would get in touch straight away so as to avoid any suggestion that you might have knowingly misled the commission."

Lord Stevenson also disclosed today that he had written to Tony Blair informing that Lord Laidlaw had breached his undertaking.

Lord Stevenson's letter came after Lord Laidlaw sent the commission an email revealing his tax lawyers' advice, which he said showed that it was "not legally possible" to backdate his tax residency to 2004 to comply with the undertaking.

Lord Stevenson writes: "I will read your lawyer's advice with interest although the issue of your tax residency of course rests between you and the [Inland] Revenue.

"It completely begs the issue that matters to the commission, namely that you made a very precise commitment to the commsision in a situation where you knew that a condition of being appointed to the Lords was to be UK tax resident.

"You have so far failed to honour this unqualified commitment."

A spokesman for Lord Laidlaw, who lives in the tax haven of Monaco, said yesterday: "I do not want to comment any further beyond what was said in the letter.

"Following this Lord Laidlaw has taken leave of absence from the Lords and will not be participating in any debates until the matter is resolved."

Lord Laidlaw , 64, is listed in the Sunday Times Rich List as the second richest person in Scotland.

He and his businesses have given more than £2.5m to the Tories and loaned a further £2.5m.

He made a fortune running a conference and training company before selling it for £768m. He pledges to donate £20m a year to charity for the rest of his lifetime.